The Mystery of Old Matchbooks and a Funny Little Pencil

We buy most of our inventory these days at midwestern auctions.  Figuring out which ones to attend has become an art--and we especially want to attend those that sell estates.  Let's face it.  If you like vintage things--they all belonged to somebody else once and chances are the previous owners have died.  Just like someone will someday own every thing in my house.  The every rolling stream of life and decorating with vintage and antiques.  And the million stories that each item could tell.

We recently bought a little table--and the drawer was not empty.  It contained the above--three matchbooks and a little green pencil.

The odd thing about two of the matchbooks--is that they were photo covers over a matchbook advertising something completely different.  The covers said Eddie Condon's and they were covering matchbooks from Manor House Hotel on South Parkway in Chicago. "Inviting, friendly, comfortable."

Eddie Condon was a jazz banjoist and guitarist and specialized in the Chicago style of Dixieland jazz.  His last album was with Louis Armstrong.  He had a club in New York.  The Manor House Hotel is no longer--and it was a house hotel on the south side of Chicago.

The third book of matches was the kind that ladies of leisure ordered with their initials--these MAC-- and they sprinkled around their living rooms and had on the bridge or rummy royal tables in the 1950s.  The little green pencil says "Edgewater Golf Club" which is no longer and was on the north side of Chicago.

We have a junk drawer in the kitchen that contains 100's of little bits and bobs and inconsequential items.  Unless I clean that out--a future generation of antique dealers will go through that and wonder about all the stories contained therein.